Hungarian phonology

The phonology of the Hungarian language is notable for its process of vowel harmony, the frequent occurrence of geminate consonants and the presence of otherwise uncommon palatal stops.

Consonants

This is the standard Hungarian consonantal system, using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Consonant phonemes of Hungarian

	Labial		Dental		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink				Template:IPAlink
Plosive	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink*	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Affricate			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Fricative	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink					Template:IPAlink
Trill				Template:IPAlink
Approximant				Template:IPAlink				Template:IPAlink

• ^* It is debated whether the palatal consonant pair consists of stops or affricates. They are considered affricates or stops, depending on register, by Tamás Szende, head of the department of General Linguistics at PPKE, and stops by Mária Gósy, research professor, head of the Department of Phonetics at ELTE. The reason for the different analyses is that the relative duration of the friction of Template:IPAslink (as compared to the duration of its closure) is longer than those of the stops, but shorter than those of the affricates. has the stop-like nature of having a full duration no longer than those of other (voiceless) stops such as but, considering the average closure time in relation to the friction time of the consonants, its duration structure is somewhat closer to those of the affricates.

Almost every consonant may be geminated, represented in writing by doubling a single letter grapheme: Template:Angbr for , Template:Angbr for , Template:Angbr for etc., or by doubling the first letter of a digraph: Template:Angbr for , Template:Angbr for , etc.

The phonemes Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink can occur in spoken language as geminates: bridzs ('bridge'). (For the list of examples and exceptions, see Hungarian dz and dzs.)

Hungarian orthography, unlike that of the surrounding Slavic languages, does not use háčky or any other consonant diacritics. Instead, the letters c, s, z are used alone (Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink) or combined in the digraphs cs, sz, zs (Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink), while y is used only in the digraphs ty, gy, ly, ny as a palatalization marker to write the sounds Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (formerly Template:IPAslink), Template:IPAslink.

The most distinctive allophones are:

• Template:IPAslink becomes Template:IPAblink if between a voiceless obstruent and a word boundary (e.g. lopj 'steal').
• becomes Template:IPAblink e.g. between voiced obstruents, such as dobj be 'throw (one/some) in'
• Template:IPAslink may become Template:IPAblink between two vowels (e.g. tehát 'so'), Template:IPAblink after front vowels (e.g. ihlet 'inspiration'), and Template:IPAblink word-finally after back vowels (e.g. doh 'musty') if it is not deleted (which it often is; e.g. méh 'bee', but even then, some dialects still pronounce it, e.g., ).

  According to Gósy, it becomes (rather than ) in words such as pech, ihlet, technika ('bad luck, inspiration, technology/technique'), while it becomes postvelar fricative in words such as doh, sah, jacht, Allah, eunuch, potroh.

• becomes when geminated, in certain words: dohhal ('with blight'), peches ('unlucky').

Examples

Phoneme	Example		Translation
Template:IPAslink	pipa		'pipe'
Template:IPAslink	bot		'stick'
Template:IPAslink	toll	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'feather'
Template:IPAslink	dob	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'throw', 'drum'
Template:IPAslink	kép	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'picture'
Template:IPAslink	gép	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'machine'
Template:IPAslink	fa	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'tree'
Template:IPAslink	vág	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'cut'
Template:IPAslink	szó	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'word'
Template:IPAslink	zöld	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'green'
Template:IPAslink	só	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'salt'
Template:IPAslink	zseb	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'pocket'
Template:IPAslink	jó	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'good'
Template:IPAslink	hó	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'snow'
Template:IPAslink	cél	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'goal', 'target'
Template:IPAslink	edző	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'coach'
Template:IPAslink	csak	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'only'
Template:IPAslink	dzsessz	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'jazz'
Template:IPAslink	ló	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'horse'
Template:IPAslink	tyúk	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'hen'
Template:IPAslink	gyár	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'factory'
Template:IPAslink	ró	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'carve'
Template:IPAslink	ma	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'today'
Template:IPAslink	nem	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'no', 'gender'
Template:IPAslink	nyár	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'summer'

Vowels

File:Hungarian vowel chart with rounded short a.svg

The vowel phonemes of Hungarian

Hungarian has seven pairs of corresponding short and long vowels. Their phonetic values do not exactly match up with each other, so Template:Angbr represents Template:IPAslink and Template:Angbr represents Template:IPAslink; likewise, Template:Angbr represents Template:IPAslink while Template:Angbr represents Template:IPAslink. For the other pairs, the short vowels are slightly lower and more central, and the long vowels more peripheral:

• are phonetically near-close .
• has been variously described as close-mid Template:IPAblink and mid Template:IPAblink.
• and the marginal are phonetically near-open , but they may be somewhat less open in other dialects.
• is phonetically mid Template:IPAblink.
• and the marginal are phonetically open central .

The sound marked by Template:Angbr is considered to be Template:IPAblink by Tamás Szende and Template:IPAblink by Mária Gósy. Gósy also mentions a different short Template:IPAslink that contrasts with both and , present in a few words like Svájc ('Switzerland'), svá ('schwa'), advent ('advent'), hardver ('hardware', this usage is considered hyperforeign or simply dated), and halló (used when answering the phone; contrasting with haló 'dying', and háló 'web').

There are two more marginal sounds, namely the long Template:IPAslink as well as the long Template:IPAslink. They are used in the name of the letters E and A, which are pronounced and , respectively. The adjective fair (as 'equitable') is pronounced in Hungarian with (it may also be short, though). This sound occurs as an alternative in erre 'this way' (instead of doubling the /r/), just like in arra 'that way'.

e-ë distinction

The letter e marks two different historical vowels, colloquially called "open e" (nyílt e) and "closed e" (zárt e). The orthography and standard pronunciation do not differentiate between the two, but many dialects do, with various pronunciations for the two vowels such as or for "open e" and or for "closed e". In text that wishes to highlight which of the two vowels is used in which place, the letter e is used for "open e" only, while "closed e" is marked with ë. There are minimal pairs that are distinguished only by the two e vowels. For example, mentek could represent four different words: mëntëk ('you all go'), mëntek ('they went'), mentëk ('I save'), and mentek ('they are exempt'). In Standard Hungarian, the first three collapse to , while the latter one is unknown, having a different form in the literary language (mentesek).

e-ë distinction by region

Region	e	ë	Example: ember ("person, human")
Northeastern, Mezőség, Budapest (standard language)	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	/ɛmbɛr/
Western (e.g. Veszprém, Zala, Vas)	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	/æmbɛr/
Along the Danube, Tiszántúl	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	/ɛmber/
Southern (ë replaced with ö)	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	/ɛmbør/

Vowel examples

Examples

Phoneme	Example
Template:IPAslink	hat	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'six'
(Template:IPAslink)	a	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'the letter A'
(Template:IPAslink)	Svájc		'Switzerland'
Template:IPAslink	lát	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'see'
Template:IPAslink	ok	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'cause'
Template:IPAslink	tó	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'lake'
Template:IPAslink	fut	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'run'
Template:IPAslink	kút	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'well'
Template:IPAslink	lesz	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'will be'
(Template:IPAslink)	e	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'the letter E'
Template:IPAslink	rész	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'part'
Template:IPAslink	visz		'carry'
Template:IPAslink	víz	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'water'
Template:IPAslink	sör	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'beer'
Template:IPAslink	bőr	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'skin'
Template:IPAslink	üt	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'hit'
Template:IPAslink	tűz	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'fire'

Vowel harmony

File:HungarianVowelHarmony.png

A Venn diagram of Hungarian vowel harmony, featuring front rounded vowels, front unrounded vowels ("neutral" vowels), and back vowels.

As in Finnish, Turkish, and Mongolian, vowel harmony plays an important part in determining the distribution of vowels in a word. Hungarian vowel harmony classifies the vowels according to front vs. back assonance and rounded vs unrounded for the front vowels. Excluding recent loanwords, Hungarian words have either only back vowels or front vowels due to these vowel harmony rules.

Hungarian vowel harmony

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close
Mid
Open

While , , , and are all front unrounded vowels, they are considered to be "neutral vowels" in Hungarian vowel harmony. Therefore, if a word contains back vowels, neutral vowels may appear alongside them. However, if only neutral vowels appear in a stem, the stem is treated as though it is of front vowel assonance and all suffixes must contain front vowels.

Vowel harmony in Hungarian is most notable when observing suffixation. Vowel harmony must be maintained throughout the entire word, meaning that most suffixes have variants. For example, the dative case marker vs. . Stems that contain back vowels affix back vowel suffixes, and stems that contain only front vowels affix front vowel suffixes. However, the front vowel stems distinguish rounded vs. unroundedness based on the last vowel in the stem. If the last vowel is front and rounded, it takes a suffix with a front rounded vowel; otherwise it follows the standard rules. While suffixes for most words have front/back vowel variants, there are not many that have rounded/unrounded variants, indicating that this is a rarer occurrence.

One is able to observe the distinction when looking at the plural affix, either (back), (front unrounded), or (front rounded).

Hungarian vowel harmony and suffixation

Stem	Gloss	Description of stem	Plural
asztal	table	Only back vowels	asztal-ok
gyerek	child	Only neutral (front) vowels, last vowel unrounded.	gyerek-ek
füzet	notebook	Only front vowels, last vowel unrounded.	füzet-ek
ismerős	acquaintance	Only front vowels, last vowel rounded.	ismerős-ök
papír	paper	Back vowel with neutral vowel	papír-ok

As can be seen above, the neutral vowels are able to be in both front and back vowel assonance words with no consequence.

However, there are about fifty monosyllabic roots that only contain , , or that take a back vowel suffix instead of the front vowel suffix.

Irregular suffixation

Stem	Gloss	"At"	"From"
híd	bridge	híd-nál	híd-tól
cél	aim	cél-nál	cél-tól

These exceptions to the rule are hypothesized to have originated from roots originally having contained a phoneme no longer present in modern Hungarian, the unrounded back vowel Template:IPAslink, or its long counterpart . It is theorized that while these vowels merged with or , less commonly or , the vowel harmony rules sensitive to the backness of the original sound remained in place. The theory finds support from etymology: related words in other languages generally have back vowels, often specifically unrounded back vowels. For example, nyíl 'arrow' (plural nyíl-ak) corresponds to Komi ньыл , Southern Mansi .

Assimilation

The overall characteristics of the consonant assimilation in Hungarian are the following:

• Assimilation types are typically regressive, that is the last element of the cluster determines the change.
• In most cases, it works across word boundaries if the sequence of words form an "accentual unity", that is there is no phonetic break between them (and they bear a common phrase stress). Typical accentual units are:
  • attributes and qualified nouns, e.g. hideg tél ('cold winter');
  • adverbs and qualified attributes, e.g. nagyon káros ~ ('very harmful');
  • verbs and their complements, e.g. nagyot dob ('s/he throws long toss'), vesz belőle ('take some [of it]').
• There are obligatory, optional and stigmatized types of assimilation.
• The palatal affricates behave like stops in assimilation processes. Therefore, in this section, they will be treated as stops, including their IPA notations Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink.

Voice assimilation

In a cluster of consonants ending in an obstruent, all obstruents change their voicing according to the last one of the sequence. The affected obstruents are the following:

• In obstruent clusters, retrograde voicing assimilation occurs, even across word boundaries:

Voiced	Voiceless	Undergoes devoicing	Undergoes voicing	Causes voicing	Causes devoicing
b Template:IPAslink	p Template:IPAslink	dobtam 'I threw (it)'	képzés 'training, forming'	futball 'soccer'	központ 'center'
d Template:IPAslink	t Template:IPAslink	adhat 's/he can give'	hétből 'from 7'	csapda	pénztár 'cash desk'
dz Template:IPAslink	c Template:IPAslink	edzhet 's/he can train'	ketrecben 'in (a) cage'	alapdzadzíki 'standard tzatziki'	abcúg! 'down with him!'
dzs Template:IPAslink	cs Template:IPAslink	bridzstől '(because) of bridge [game of cards]'	ácsból 'from (a) carpenter'	barackdzsem ~ 'apricot jam'	távcső 'telescope'
g Template:IPAslink	k Template:IPAslink	fogtam 'I held (it)'	zsákból 'out of (a) bag'	állítgat 's/he constantly adjusts'	zsebkendő 'handkerchief'
gy Template:IPAslink	ty Template:IPAslink	ágytól 'from (a) bed'	pintyből 'from (a) finch'	gépgyár 'machine factory'	lábtyű 'socks with sleeves for the toes'
v Template:IPAslink	f Template:IPAslink	szívtam 'I smoked/sucked (it)'	széfben 'in (a) safe'	*	lábfej 'part of the foot below the ankle'
z Template:IPAslink	sz Template:IPAslink	méztől 'from honey'	mészből 'out of lime'	alapzat 'base(ment)'	rabszolga 'slave'
zs Template:IPAslink	s Template:IPAslink	rúzstól 'from lipstick'	hasba 'in(to) (the) stomach'	köldökzsinór 'umbilical cord'	különbség ~ 'difference'
—	h Template:IPAslink	—	—	—	adhat 's/he can give'

• ^[1] Template:IPAslink is unusual in that it undergoes devoicing, but does not cause voicing, e.g. hatvan ('sixty') is pronounced not . Voicing before occurs only in south-western dialects, though it is stigmatized.
• Conversely, Template:IPAslink causes devoicing, but never undergoes voicing in consonant clusters. e.g. dohból 'from (the) musty smell'.
• Other than a few foreign words, morpheme-initial Template:IPAslink does not occur (even its phonemic state is highly debated), therefore it is hard to find a real example when it induces voicing (even alapdzadzíki is forced and not used colloquially). However, the regressive voice assimilation before does occur even in nonsense sound sequences.

Nasal place assimilation

Nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant (even across word boundaries):

• only Template:IPAblink precedes a velar consonant (e.g. hang , 'voice'), Template:IPAblink precedes a labiodental consonant (e.g. hamvad , 'smolder'), and Template:IPAblink precedes bilabial consonants.
  • Template:IPAblink before labial consonants : színpad ('stage'), különb ('better than'), énmagam ('myself');
  • Template:IPAblink before labiodental consonants : különféle ('various'), hamvas ('bloomy');
  • Template:IPAblink before palatal consonants : pinty ('finch'), ángy ('wife of a close male relative'), magánnyomozó ('private detective');
  • Template:IPAblink before velar consonants : munka ('work'), angol ('English');
• Nasal place assimilation is obligatory within the word, but optional across a word or compound boundary, e.g. szénpor ~ ('coal-dust'), nagyon káros ~ ('very harmful'), olyan más ~ ('so different').

Sibilant assimilation

• Voiceless sibilants form a voiceless geminate affricate with preceding alveolar and palatal stops (d Template:IPAslink, gy Template:IPAslink, t Template:IPAslink, ty Template:IPAslink):
  • Clusters ending in sz Template:IPAslink or c Template:IPAslink give : metszet 'engraving, segment', ötödször 'for the fifth time', négyszer 'four times', füttyszó 'whistle (as a signal)'; átcipel 's/he lugs (something) over', nádcukor 'cane-sugar'.
  • Clusters ending in s Template:IPAslink or cs Template:IPAslink give : kétség 'doubt', fáradság 'trouble', egység 'unity', hegycsúcs 'mountain-top'.
• Two sibilant fricatives form a geminate of the latter phoneme; the assimilation is regressive as usual:
  • sz Template:IPAslink or z Template:IPAslink + s Template:IPAslink gives : egészség 'health', község 'village, community';
  • sz Template:IPAslink or z Template:IPAslink + zs Template:IPAslink gives : vadászzsákmány 'hunter's game'; száraz zsömle 'dry bread roll';
  • s Template:IPAslink or zs Template:IPAslink + sz Template:IPAslink gives : kisszerű 'petty', rozsszalma 'rye straw';
  • s Template:IPAslink or zs Template:IPAslink + z Template:IPAslink gives : tilos zóna 'restricted zone', parázs zene 'hot music'.
  • Clusters zs+s , s+zs , z+sz and sz+z are rather the subject of the voice assimilation.
• If one of the two adjacent sibilants is an affricate, the first one changes its place of articulation, e.g. malacság , halászcsárda 'Hungarian fish restaurant'. Sibilant affricate–fricative sequences like are pronounced the same as geminate affricate during normal speech.
• Sibilant assimilation can be omitted in articulated speech, e.g. to avoid homophony: rozsszalma ~ 'rye straw' ≠ rossz szalma 'straw of bad quality', and rossz alma 'apple of bad quality' as well.
• NB. Letter cluster szs can be read either as sz+s , e.g. egészség 'health', or as s+zs , e.g. liszteszsák 'bolting-bag' depending on the actual morpheme boundary. Similarly zsz is either zs + z , e.g. varázszár 'magic lock', or z + sz , e.g. házszám 'street-number'; and csz: cs + z ~ c + sz . Moreover, single digraphs may prove to be two adjacent letters on morpheme boundary, like cs: cs ~ c + s ; sz: sz ~ s + z , zs: zs ~ z + s .

Palatal assimilation

Combination of a "palatalizable" consonant and a following palatal consonant results in a palatal geminate. Palatalizable consonants are palatal ones and their non-palatal counterparts: d Template:IPAslink ~ gy Template:IPAslink, l Template:IPAslink ~ ly Template:IPAslink, n Template:IPAslink ~ ny Template:IPAslink, t Template:IPAslink ~ ty Template:IPAslink.

• Full palatal assimilation occurs when the ending palatal consonant is j Template:IPAslink: nagyja 'most of it', adja 's/he gives it'; tolja 's/he pushes it'; unja 's/he is bored with it', hányja 's/he throws it'; látja 's/he sees it', atyja 'his/her father'. The cluster lyj is a simple orthographic variant of jj : folyjon 'let it flow'.
• Partial assimilation takes place if an alveolar stop (d, t) is followed by a palatal gy Template:IPAslink, ty Template:IPAslink: hadgyakorlat 'army exercises', nemzetgyűlés 'national assembly'; vadtyúk 'wild chicken', hat tyúk 'six hens'.
• Some sources report that alveolar stops change into their palatal counterparts before ny Template:IPAslink: lúdnyak 'neck of a goose', átnyúlik 'it extends over'. The majority of the sources do not mention this kind of assimilation.
• When the first consonant is nasal, the partial palatal assimilation is a form of the nasal place assimilation (see above).
• The full palatal assimilation is an obligatory feature in standard Hungarian: its omission is stigmatized and it is considered as a hypercorrection of an undereducated person. Partial palatal assimilation is optional in articulated speech.

Degemination

Long consonants become short when preceded or followed by another consonant, e.g. folttal 'by/with (a) patch', varrtam 'I sewed'.

Intercluster elision

The middle alveolar stops may be omitted in clusters with more than two consonants, depending on speed and articulation of speech: azt hiszem ~ ~ I presume/guess', mindnyájan 'one and all', különbség ~ 'difference'. In morpheme onsets like str- , middle stops tends to be more stable in educated speech, falanxstratégia ~ ~ 'strategy based on phalanxes'.

Elision of

• Template:IPAslink assimilates to a following Template:IPAslink (e.g. balra , 'to the left').

also tends to be omitted between a preceding vowel and an adjacent stop or affricate in rapid speech, causing the lengthening of the vowel or diphthongization (e.g. volt 'was', polgár 'citizen'). This is quite common in dialectal speech, but considered non-standard in the official language.

Hiatus

Standard Hungarian prefers hiatus between adjacent vowels. However some optional dissolving features can be observed:

• An optional weak glide may be pronounced within a word (or a compound element) between two adjacent vowels if one of them is i , e.g. fiaiéi ~ ('the ones of his/her sons'). This, however, is rarely transcribed.
• Adjacent identical short vowels other than a and e may be pronounced as the corresponding long vowel, e.g. zoológia ~ ('zoology').
• Adjacent double i is always pronounced as single short in the word endings, e.g. Hawaii . This reduction is reflected in the current orthography when the adjective-forming suffix -i is added to a noun ending in i. In this case suffix -i is omitted also in writing. e.g. Lenti (a placename) + -i → lenti 'of Lenti'.

Stress

The stress is on the first syllable of the word. The articles a, az, egy, and the particle is are usually unstressed.

External links

• The Hungarian alphabet (omniglot.com)